familypediawikiaorg-20200214-history
John Hubbard Chafee (1922-1999)
}} * 66th Governor of Rhode Island * 60th Secretary of U.S. Navy * Senator for Rhode Island * Member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives * 2000 US Medal of Freedom Biography John Lester Hubbard Chafee was an American politician. He served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, as the 66th Governor of Rhode Island, as the Secretary of the Navy, and as a United States Senator. Early Life Chafee was born in Providence, Rhode Island to a politically active family. He was the son of Janet (née Hunter) and John S. Chafee. John Chafee graduated from a coeducational primary school, Providence's Gordon School, in 1931 and then attended Providence Country Day School. In 1940, he graduated from Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. Veteran of WWII Chafee was in his third year as an undergraduate at Yale University when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.3 He interrupted his undergraduate studies and enlisted in the Marine Corps, spending his 20th birthday fighting on the island of Guadalcanal from August 8 until November 1942, when the First Marine Division was relieved. After receiving his commission as a Second Lieutenant, he fought in the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945. Death A few months after declaring that he would not seek reelection in 2000, he died suddenly from congestive heart failure in October 24, 1999—just two days after his 77th birthday—at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He was survived by his wife Virginia Coates Chafee, a daughter and four sons including Lincoln Chafee, who was appointed to serve out the remainder of the elder Chafee's term and who then won a full term in his own right in the 2000 election. In 2000, Senator Chafee was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In an obituary, President Clinton said that, "He embodied the decent center. For him, civility was not simply a matter of personal manners. He believed it was essential to the preservation of our democratic system."9 Ancestry John Chafee is a direct descendant of Frances Latham (1609-1677), AKA: Mother of Governors, and thus related to a number of noteworthy politicians and Rhode Island historical figures. His great-grandfather, Henry Lippitt, was governor of Rhode Island (1875–1877) and among his great-uncles were a Rhode Island governor, Charles Warren Lippitt, and United States Senator Henry Frederick Lippitt. His uncle, Zechariah Chafee, was a Harvard law professor, and a notable civil libertarian. His cousin was Frederick Lippitt, former House Minority Leader for the Rhode Island House of Representatives. His son is former Rhode Island Governor and former United States Senator Lincoln Chafee. Namesake The USS Chafee (DDG-90), the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor and the John H. Chafee National Wildlife Refuge were named in his honor. Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island named its World Trade Center on campus after John H. Chafee for his continuing support for global trade and his association with the University. The Chafee Social Science Center at the University of Rhode Island is named in his honor. It is the tallest building in southern Rhode Island. The Foster Care Independence Act of 1999, passed on November 23, 1999 after his death, is known as the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program. The programs are administered at the state level by Social Service Agencies. One such program, in example, is the North Carolina Links program References * - Wikipedia * John Chafee - disambiguation * Chaffee Family of Boston - Boston Brahmin Category:American Episcopalians Category:American Marine Corps personnel of the Korean War Category:American Marine Corps personnel of World War II Category:Deerfield Academy alumni Category:Governors of Rhode Island Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Members of the Rhode Island House of Representatives Category:Military personnel from Rhode Island Category:Nixon administration personnel Category:Politicians from Providence, Rhode Island Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Republican Party state governors of the United States Category:Republican Party United States Senators Category:Rhode Island Republicans Category:United States Marine Corps officers Category:United States Marine Corps reservists Category:United States Secretaries of the Navy Category:United States Senators from Rhode Island Category:Yale University alumni Category:Chafee family